Radio România Internațional

Tag: natural gas supplies

  • September 15, 2023

    September 15, 2023

    CVM – The European Commission has officially lifted the
    Cooperation and Verification Mechanism (CVM) for Bulgaria and Romania. CVM was
    introduced upon the two countries’ EU accession in 2007, as a measure to help
    them reform their judiciaries and combat corruption and organized crime.
    President Ursula von der Leyen congratulated Romania and Bulgaria for the significant
    progress reported since their accession, and pointed out that the rule of law
    is one of the fundamental EU values, a field in which both Romania and Bulgaria
    have implemented major reforms. In turn, Romania’s president Klaus Iohannis
    said the lifting of CVM is a great achievement for Romania. We can conclude
    Romania has changed, it is a rules-based democracy with a functional
    judiciary, the president added.




    STRIKE – Some 300 passenger and freight trains were suspended on Friday morning
    following a two-hour strike staged by rail infrastructure employees. Trade
    unions say some problems can no longer be talked about only at the level of the
    Transport Ministry and the Government. Rail employees are disgruntled over the
    lack of revenue and spending budgets adopted for 2023, as well as the absence
    of strategic and coherent funding of the Romanian railways.




    SCHENGEN – In an interview to the Austrian publication Der Standard, Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu said Romania will refer
    Austria’s opposition to Romania’s Schengen accession to the European Union
    Court of Justice. The Romanian official said losses due to the repeated
    postponements stand at 2% of GDP, something which Transport Minister Sorin
    Grindeanu had said earlier this week. Romania says she will seek justice in
    court should Austria again oppose Romania’s Schengen accession at the upcoming
    informal meetings in October and December. We recall that in December 2022,
    Austria again vetoed the Schengen accession of Romania and Bulgaria at the
    Justice and Home Affairs Council meeting, invoking the high flows of illegal
    immigrants passing through the two countries.




    PLAN – The Government has updated its emergency plan on securing natural gas
    supplies. The document falls in line with European regulations and was drafted
    following consultations with the main market players. Measures to cap and
    subsidize natural gas bills will remain in effect until spring next year. The
    current legislation stipulates state aid will remain in place until 2025. On
    the other hand, according to the Energy Ministry, the government is also
    considering the growing influence of prosumers in covering nationwide
    consumption.




    MOLDOVA – Moldova belongs in Europe, in the family of Western democracies, NATO
    Deputy Secretary General Mircea Geoană said on the sidelines of a meeting he
    had in Chișinău with Moldova’s Prime Minister, Dorin Recean. Mircea Geoană
    hailed the Moldovan authorities’ plea for extended interoperability with
    NATO, underlining that the military alliance is the strongest structure of its
    kind in the world. The NATO official denied the existence of Russian military
    risks facing the Republic of Moldova, but pointed out this country is fighting
    a hybrid war triggered by the Russian Federation.




    TENNIS – Nicholas David Ionel is today playing Chin-Hsin Tseng in the first match
    of the Davis Cup encounter pitting Romania against Taiwain in World Group 1,
    hosted by Mamaia on the Black Sea coast. Ionel (226 ATP) and Tseng (326 ATP)
    have only played each other once before, in 2021, Tseng winning 6-3, 6-4. In
    the second singles match today, Marius Copil (327 ATP) will play Yu Hsiou Hsu
    (180 ATP). On Saturday, the pair made up of Marius Copil and Victor Cornea will
    play Yu Hsiou Hsu and Tsung-Hao Huang in the doubles match. In the singles,
    Ionel will play Hsu whereas Copil will take on Tseng. This is the first match
    pitting the two teams in the Davis Cup. In February, in the World Group
    playoffs, Romania defeated Thailand 3-2 away from home, whereas Taiwan defeated
    Mexico 3-1, also away from home. (VP)





  • April 28, 2022 UPDATE

    April 28, 2022 UPDATE

    REFUGEES – The number of Ukrainian nationals who
    crossed the border into Romania went up 30% on Wednesday compared to the
    previous day, reads a news release issued by the Romanian Border Police. As
    many as 8,635 Ukrainian citizens entered Romania in 24 hours, coming from
    Ukraine or the R. of Moldova. Since the start of the crisis over 2 months ago,
    over 800,000 Ukrainians have come into Romania. Meanwhile, the UN Refugee
    Agency (UNHCR) announced in a conference in Geneva that over 8 million
    Ukrainians may leave their country. According to the UNHCR spokesperson Shabia
    Mantoo, the Agency and its partners intend to raise 1.85 billion USD to support
    an estimated 8.3 million refugees in Hungary, the Republic of Moldova, Poland,
    Romania and Slovakia, as well as in other countries in the region, including
    Belarus, Bulgaria and the Czech Republic.


    UKRAINE – The authorities in Ukraine
    are hopeful about the future, despite the current difficulties, Romanian Senate
    Speaker, Florin Cîțu, said upon his return from Kyiv. Florin Cîțu visited the
    Ukrainian capital to attend the first congress of local authorities held since
    the start of the Russian invasion. Florin Cîțu said talks focused primarily on
    reconstruction. Ukraine needs support for this effort, and it is clear the
    country needs further assistance in order to defend itself, the Romanian
    official pointed out.


    TROOPS – The Romanian defence ministry announced that the Romanian
    Army currently has no troops deployed in the Republic of Moldova to take part
    in drills or other joint training programmes. The statement comes after a
    Russian-language publication released fake news according to which Romania
    plans to attack Transnistria with NATO support, and then to annex the
    Republic of Moldova, and claimed that Romanian troops have already been
    deployed to the neighboring country. Disinformation on Russian channels follows
    a number of attacks by unknown perpetrators, which took place in the past few
    days in Transnistria, a pro-Russian breakaway region in the east of the
    Republic of Moldova.


    GOVERNMENT – The government on Thursday passed an
    emergency decree allowing economic operators on the Romanian Black Seacoast to
    sign contracts for renting and operating the newly created beach areas. In this
    context, the Minister of Tourism and Entrepreneurship, Constantin-Daniel
    Cadariu, announced that over 100 hotels will open their doors to guests for the
    May 1 mini-holiday, which have already booked approximately 80% of their units.
    Also on Thursday, the government passed another emergency decree implementing
    the provisions of the Omnibus Directive, whereby Romanian consumers will
    benefit from the same rights and protection as European citizens. The
    government also passed a draft law for the recognition of babysitters as a
    professional category of workers providing families with child day-care and
    monitoring services. Additionally, the government approved the setup,
    organization and functioning of the cross-ministry committee on climate change,
    which will be coordinated by Prime Minister Nicolae Ciucă.


    NATURAL GAS – The European Union
    told Russia it would not give in to blackmail, after Moscow discontinued
    natural gas supplies to Poland and Bulgaria, which had refused to pay for
    natural gas in rubles. The European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen
    said the Union had other options to make up for the suspended deliveries, and
    warned member states not to breach the sanctions imposed by the EU after
    Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. We have to guarantee alternative supplies and the
    best possible storage levels across the EU, Von der Leyen explained. EU member
    states have implemented emergency plans for such a scenario and we have worked
    together in coordination and solidarity, the EU official added.




    TENNIS – Romanian tennis player Simona Halep on
    Thursday ousted Shuai Zhang of China in the opening round at the Mutua Madrid
    Open. Sorana Cîrstea however lost to Nuria Parrizas Diaz of Spain, while Irina
    Begu was defeated by Belinda Bencic of Switzerland. The Madrid Open takes place
    between April 28 and May 7. Simona Halep won the 2016 and 2017 editions.


    RUGBY -
    Romania’s rugby team has qualified to the 2023 World Cup in France after Spain
    was disqualified for using an ineligible player in two matches held as part of
    the 2021-2022 Rugby Europe Championship. World Rugby had previously opened an
    investigation following a query submitted by Romania, after finishing the Group
    in 3rd place. We recall Romania too was disqualified from the 2019
    World Cup for using an ineligible player.
    (AMP
    & VP)

  • Romania Delivers Gas to R. of Moldova

    Romania Delivers Gas to R. of Moldova

    Without logistics support, the Republic of Moldova’s pro-European choice would remain purely theoretical. More than two decades since it proclaimed its independence from Moscow, in 1991, Chisinau still depends heavily on Russian hydrocarbons. And the difficult negotiations this week in Brussels, through which the EU secured an agreement between Kiev and Moscow on Russian gas deliveries to the West, via Ukraine, are tale-telling for the strategic importance of natural gas. The so-called gas war, through which Moscow has repeatedly punished both Ukraine for its pro-Western orientation, and Europe for supporting the Ukrainians’aspirations, is a scenario that might be repeated in Moldova at any time.



    Built precisely to reduce Chisinau’s reliance on Russian imports, the pipeline connecting the cities of Iasi in Romania and Ungheni in Moldova is operational as of Wednesday. On August 27th, last year, when Moldova celebrated its national day, the Romanian PM Victor Ponta, his Moldovan counterpart Iurie Leanca and the EU Commissioner for Energy, Gunther Oettinger attended the official opening of the pipeline.



    Construction works took one year and cost 26 million euros, most of the funds coming from Romania, with the balance covered by the EC. More than half a year after the official inauguration, Romania started to provide gas to the Republic of Moldova. The price, 255 US dollars per thousand cubic meters, is significantly lower than the one charged by the Russian supplier Gazprom, 332 dollars. Over one million cubic meters will reach Ungheni this year, and from there it will be fed into the central network of the Moldovan national supplier, Moldovagaz.



    But this will only cover part of the needs of the country. The Government in Chisinau says talks are already underway with foreign partners, regarding the extension of the Iasi-Ungheni pipeline to the capital city. With a capacity of 1.5 billion cubic meters per year, the extended pipeline might cover most of the country’s natural gas demand. But the extension entails costs of over 60 million euros, of which Brussels is only willing to provide 10 million.



    Diversifying its energy sources is vital to the future of the Republic of Moldova, the US Deputy Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in his turn, during a visit to Chisinau on Tuesday, when he met Moldova’s President Nicolae Timofti and the new Prime Minister, Chiril Gaburici.